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After work I felt like cooking, so I went shopping and came home and whipped this up in about 90 minutes (I used left over tomato sauce). All of the recipes except for the beet recipe have been posted on Rootsliving. So, I’m posting a link to the beet salad recipe courtesy of Epicurious.

I never liked beets, but now with this recipe, I love them. And they’re good for you too.

So let me let you in on the secret. Nepitella is an herb that grows wild in Tuscany (and in my driveway after I transplanted a small plant from my grandmother’s garden about 15 years ago). Some describe it as a cross between oregano and mint, but I believe it’s more like a cross between basil and mint. And I wouldn’t think of cooking mushrooms or artichokes without it.

So when I was inspired to try to make nepitella pesto the logical use for it was to stuff mushrooms with it. And the result was perfect.

The pesto by itself, without any cooking, was much stronger than a basil pesto: more earthy and with a sharp bite, almost spicy flavor. But when it cooked inside the mushrooms, the taste mellowed into a more mild buttery flavor: still very earthy but without the sharpness of the raw nepitella pesto.

If you’d like to try this, finding nepitella will be a challenge, but a search online revealed a few places that sell the plant. Or just stop by my driveway: there this evasive plant grows wild in cracks and along narrow dirt patches along the fence.

NEPITELLA PESTO:

Ingredients:

Nepitella leaves (washed, about a half a cup)

Pignoli nuts (about 1/4 cup)

Garlic (4-6 cloves)

Extra-virgin olive oil (about 1/2 cup)

Parmesan cheese (About 1/4- 1/2 cup; Imported, freshly grated. Don’t use the stuff they sell in a jar; Or use freshly grated Romano and/or Pecorino if you’d like to save some money.)

Kosher salt and pepper.

What I did:

Put nuts and garlic in food processor with a steel blade and process for about 15 seconds.

You can add many things to risotto but mushrooms (especially porcini) are my favorite. I made this dish up last night with vegetables I had on hand: crimini mushrooms and eggplant. Feel free to omit the eggplant, it’s just as good.

Making risotto is not hard, but it is an art. The key is adding small amounts of liquid to the rice, only enough for it to be absorbed a minute or two at a time. This ensures the dish will be not only flavorful but will have the correct texture: think al dente (with a little bite); never soggy or water-logged.

And of course, the main thing you do, is stir, baby, stir. (Tip: Be sure to scrape the bottom of the pan while stirring and lower the heat if you think the liquid is evaporating too fast or if there is a danger of the rice burning.)

Ingredients:

Arborio rice (1 pound). Accept no substitutes, this is what makes risotto, risotto.

Chicken broth (About 44 ounces). You can use home-made stock (the best), or canned broth, or some bullion cubes with water or a mixture of all. You can also use a little white wine. Last night I used a combination of canned broth, chicken bullion cube, and a porcini bullion cube with hot water. Whatever liquid you use, be sure to heat it up before you add it to the rice.

Onion (1 small or a 1/2 of a large onion; chopped)

Olive oil (About 1/4 cup; enough to cover the bottom of a medium-sized pot; plus more to coat the eggplant and mushrooms.)

Mushrooms (About 8 oz.; chopped)

Eggplant (1 small or 3/4 of a large eggplant, sliced thin)

Nepitella (About 1 tablespoon. A mixture of dried basil and mint will also work).

Add rice and stir. Add more olive oil if needed, just enough to coat the rice. Cook for a minute or two, stirring occasionally.

Ladle in the liquid, just enough to cover the rice and stir. When liquid is absorbed, add more liquid, just enough to cover and stir. Continue doing this until risotto is done (about 45 minutes).

In between stirring the risotto, coat a cookie sheet with olive oil and salt (kosher is best). Put down a layer of eggplant and brush tops of eggplant slices with oil and salt. Bake in a 400-degree oven, turning over when bottom is brown. Do the same with the mushrooms. Add nepitella to the cooked mushrooms and set aside.

When risotto is done. Stir in eggplant and mushrooms. Stir in butter and parmesan cheese. Add pepper to taste.

This dish takes about 45 minutes to make if you work fast. Add another 15-minutes to 30 minutes if you work at a leisurely pace.

You can serve this as a main meal (serves four) with a side salad; or as a side dish. And if you’re out to impress, try serving it as a side-dish inside a parmesan basket.

Roasted eggplant tastes great, is low-calorie and can be used in a variety of dishes.

I improvised this dish one night using ingredients I had on hand. The taste is savory, sweet, and comforting. And it’s something that can be whipped up in about half an hour.

Ingredients:

1 Eggplant (Make sure it’s firm, shiny and a dark purple. This is key, as I don’t believe in salting eggplant and draining it to get out the bitterness. If you buy a perfectly ripe eggplant without bruises, it won’t be bitter.)

Mushrooms (about 8 oz.), fried in olive oil, salt and pepper. I like to also add a sprinkling of dried or fresh nepitella. But since that’s hard to come by, you could also use a combination of basil and mint.

Cream cheese (About 2 or three tablespoons; just enough to mix in with the cooked mushrooms).

Fry mushrooms in olive oil. Add salt and pepper and nepitella and cook until brown and done. Set aside.

Saute chicken over medium-high heat. When one side finishes cooking, turn over and spread dabs of sun-dried tomato paste over it. Then turn chicken over, and do the same to the other side. Cook chicken in batches like this.

Add all chicken back into the frying pan. Add mushrooms and chopped tomatoes and basil, and salt and pepper to taste. Cover pan and cook until done. Place in a serving dish.

Take slices of bread and cook in a little olive oil. Spread some sun-dried tomato paste on the bread as it cooks and add a dab of butter to taste.

Serve a slice of bread with each chicken plate. Chicken can be placed on top of the bread too. Be sure to spoon on some sauce and serve.

(Note: If you’d like to print this recipe, click here or on the headline on this post and then use the print button at the bottom of the post. In other words, print from the “permalink” not from the homepage.)

When you run out of time this dish is quick and easy to make at the end of the day.

I had dreams of making a chicken parmesan last Sunday. But as I went through my daily chores, the time for doing that dwindled. So next I thought, I’ll make a roast beef. That’s easy and quick to throw together. But by the time I went to the supermarket, there wasn’t enough time in the day left to cook it in a 350 oven for 1-2 hours.

So I grabbed what looked good. And what looked good that day in the meat section was eye of the round steaks. And they were reasonably priced too. So I threw them in the cart and headed back to the produce section with thoughts of a scallion and mushroom sauce to pour over them.